Impact of changes in pruning practices on vine growth and yield

Context and Purpose. Management of plant-parasitic nematodes in perennial cropping systems such as wines grapes is challenging.

Drought stress has a profound impact on grapevine productivity and significantly alters key quality-related traits of berries. Although research has been conducted on the effects of individual drought events, there is still a knowledge gap regarding the cumulative consequences of repeated exposure to water scarcity and the influence of the timing of stress imposition. To address this gap, a field experiment was conducted to investigate the impacts of repeated drought stress on yield, berry composition, and the phenolic profile of grape berries. The results indicate that yield is primarily influenced by pre-veraison water deficit. Although the number of clusters was only slightly reduced, a substantial decrease in berry size was observed, resulting in a notable reduction in overall yield.

Flavescence dorée, a serious threat to grapevine cultivation in several European Countries, is caused by phytoplasmas in the 16Sr-V ribosomal group, classified as quarantine organisms in the EU and transmitted mainly by the insect vector Scaphoideus titanus. The disease is controlled only by indirect and preventive measures, with important economic and environmental concerns. Genetic resources from the great variety of Vitis vinifera germplasm together with application of new genomic techniques could be applied to produce resistant/tolerant plants, once the genetic bases of susceptibility are elucidated. In a current Italian project (BIORES*) we are evaluating different international and local grapevine cvs. as well as microvine plants for their response to FD transmission and multiplication in controlled conditions.

Context and purpose of the study. Climate change accelerates grapevine’s phenology, advancing harvests by 2–3 weeks over the past 40 years negatively affecting wine style due to a lack of acidity and too much alcohol.

Grape Phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae Fitch) ordinarily has great difficulty establishing leaf galls on the European Grapevine (VitisviniferaL.). Yet populations of leaf-feeding Phylloxera are increasingly being observed throughout commercial vineyards world-wide. Effective plant protection strategies including quarantine actions are currently missing to fight, grape phylloxera populations in affected vineyards and combat linked negative effects on vines and yield. Contrary to the otherwise mandatory continuous infestation pressure from externally established populations (e.g. from populations developed on rootstock foliage or other interspecific hybrids, these leaf-feeding populations seem to establish themselves annually.